Session Information
99 ERC SES 07 E, Language and Education
Paper Session
Contribution
English as a global language has predominated over languages other than English (LOTEs) in language education studies for ages. This trend has been emphasised in non-Anglophone countries' higher education systems, which resulted in a decline in LOTE education worldwide (Gao & Zheng, 2019; Lanvers, 2018). On the other hand, the Chinese government has initiated a programme of multilingual reform in education as a concomitant of the “Belt and Road Initiative” (B&R) in 2013. As a substantial China-led infrastructure project, the B&R initiative focuses on transnational construction, railways, and highways which has connected East Asia and Europe and extended to Africa, Oceania, and Latin America within a decade. To date, 147 countries are participating or showing interest in the B&R initiative which involves more than 50 official languages other than English. Since the scope of the bilateral economic relations between China and other non-Anglophone countries has been expanded, the significance of LOTEs has drawn the attention of the government of China mainland, which promotes the development of LOTE education in Chinese tertiary education (Chen et al., 2021). The promotion of LOTE programmes in national language policies in China will diversify the multilingual journey of stakeholders at the local level, such as language teachers and college students. However, there is a general paucity of empirical research describing how the national language policy is being understood by meso-level (institutional) actors in higher education in China. Meanwhile, few studies have examined the potential contribution of institutional agency work to the language policy and planning (LPP) concerning LOTEs (Hamid et al., 2018) and the consequences of current LPP for the learner agency of LOTE students in Chinese universities.
Generally, agency is the ability to make decisions, on which people act to change their lives. A widely circulated definition of agency was proposed by Ahearn (2001, p. 112) as ‘a socio-culturally mediated capacity to act’, which includes socio-affective factors like motivation, attitudes, and actions (Hatoss, 2018). Lantolf and Thorne (2006) further explain agency as ‘socioculturally mediated and dialectically enacted’ (p. 238), which can be in relation to the reciprocal influence of language teaching and learning (Glasgow & Bouchard, 2019).
To address the above-mentioned research gap, this study aims to investigate the agency meso-level LPP actors in a prestigious university in China underpinned by Glasgow and Bouchard (2019)’s Model for studying agency in LPP. Overall, the objective of this research is to explore how individual actors including educators and students exercise their agency in shaping different LOTE programs and investigate the interaction of individual agency between actors across different social layers.
Method
This research employs a qualitative case study to capture the agentic actions in the context of LOTE education in a Chinese tertiary institution from the perspective of educators and undergraduates. An emic approach has been undertaken to describing the phenomena of LOTE education in China, which is an insider’s view of reality. This study involved a university teacher and five final year undergraduates who majored in Arabic and German from a well-famed university in Shanghai. Semi-structured interviews are used as the main research tools to elicit Chinese undergraduates’ multilingual learning trajectories and language use and the perceptions and implementation of national and institutional language policy by meso-level actors in the LOTE contexts. In this research, the educator participated in one-to-one interviews which revolved around their understanding and appropriation of national and institutional language policy and potential factors influencing they exerting agency in teaching and scaffolding students in the LOTE classrooms. Meanwhile, LOTE learners were invited to interviews which elicited Chinese undergraduates’ experiences of learning LOTEs in the university context, their investment in LOTE learning, their interaction with teachers regarding formal LOTE study and the underlying factors influencing their language trajectories and use. In addition, both students and educators’ narratives from interviews will be coded through the use of thematic analysis based on the themes generated from Glasgow and Bouchard (2019)’s Model for studying agency in LPP, such as prevailing socio-cultural values and ideologies, enabling and/or constraining effects of policy, agentive response(s) to policy and the outcomes of agentive responses. Currently, the data analysis process is still ongoing.
Expected Outcomes
The results of this study will contribute to our understanding of individual agency regarding language planning at an institutional level in the context of LOTE education within China, contributing empirical evidence to support academic debate and policy. The study offers some important insights into guiding policy decision-makers to balance the impact of disproportionate individual power in implementing language planning and develop a more supportive environment for the enactment of individual agency at the local level regarding LOTE education in China. The results of this study will contribute to the evaluation of the compatibility between national language policy, institutional language planning and individual language learners’ aspirations in relation to LOTE program development. In addition, the study tries to illustrate the language learning experiences of LOTE learners including identity, motivation and attitudes. This research sheds new light on contextual factors promoting and prohibiting LOTE teaching and learning within Chinese tertiary education. The objective of this research is to offer advice to policymakers, university administrators, course organizers and ordinary teachers to make a concerted effort to enhance the teaching and learning of LOTEs in China.
References
Ahearn, L. 2001. Language and agency. Annual Review of Anthropology, pp.109-137. Chen, X., Tao, J. & Zhao, K. 2021. Agency in meso-level language policy planning in the face of macro-level policy shifts: a case study of multilingual education in a Chinese tertiary institution. Current issues in language planning, 22, pp. 136-156. Gao, X. & Zheng, Y. 2019. Multilingualism and higher education in Greater China. Journal of multilingual and multicultural development, 40, 555-561. Glasgow, G. P. & Bouchard, J. 2019. Introduction. In: BOUCHARD, J. & GLASGOW, G. P. (eds.) Agency in language policy and planning : critical inquiries Abingdon, Oxon Routledge. Hamid, O., Nguyen, H. T., Nguyen, H. V. & Phan, T. T. H. 2018. Agency and Language-in-Education Policy in Vietnamese Higher Education. In: GLASGOW, G. P. & BOUCHARD, J. (eds.) Researching agency in language policy and planning. New York: Routledge, pp.102-124. Hatoss, A. 2018. Language awareness and identity in diasporic communities. In: COTS, P. G. J. M. (ed.) Handbook of language awareness. London: Routledge, pp.418 - 434. Lantolf, J. P. & Thorne, S. L. 2006. Sociocultural theory and the genesis of second language development / J.P. Lantolf, S.L. Thorne, Oxford ;, Oxford University Press. Lanvers, U. 2018. ‘If they are going to university, they are gonna need a language GCSE’: Co-constructing the social divide in language learning in England. System (Linköping), 76, pp.129-143. Phillipson, R. & Skutnabb-Kangas, T. 2017. English, Language Dominance, and Ecolinguistic Diversity Maintenance. In: FILPPULA, M., KLEMOLA, J. & SHARMA, D. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of World Englishes, Oxford Handbooks. online edn: Oxford Academic.
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